The Verkhovna Rada building, home to Ukraine’s parliament, in Kiev. (Cia.gov)

Ukraine’s parliament extends ban on farmland sales

Kiev | Reuters — The Ukrainian parliament voted on Thursday to extend a ban on the sale of agricultural land by one year, delaying what financial backers say is a key reform essential to Ukraine’s long-term economic growth. The bill was backed by 236 lawmakers, narrowly over the 226 required to pass. Currently Ukraine’s more […] Read more

Province House, home of the Nova Scotia Legislature, as seen in 2008. (NSLegislature.ca)

Nova Scotia to help black residents get land titles

London | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Historic black communities in Nova Scotia will be given funds to establish legal ownership of land where they have lived for generations, the government said, in a drive to solve what critics call a case of long-running discrimination. The provincial government will spend $2.7 million over two years to […] Read more

Photo: Government of Yukon.

Want free farmland? Grab your parka and head North

Toronto / Thomson Reuters Foundation – In Canada’s far north, the government of Yukon Territory wants to attract small farmers to the frigid region with a simple pitch: free land. And as global warming makes Canada’s northern regions more hospitable to agriculture by opening once frozen land to farming, the opportunities are growing. Bordering on Alaska […] Read more

The UPA mounted a public campaign to put pressure on the provincial government to reconsider its plans for the farmland tax credit program. (UPA.qc.ca)

Quebec’s winter trails to remain open as tax reform halted

Snowmobile trails going through farmland owned by members of Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) will remain open as the province hits the brakes on changes to its farmland property tax credit plan. UPA members had recently pledged to revoke previously-permitted access to their land for snowmobile trails starting Monday (Feb. 6) in a dispute […] Read more

Brazil to open farmland, airlines to foreign buyers

Brasilia | Reuters — President Michel Temer will propose legislation to lift restrictions on foreign ownership of airlines and agricultural land in Brazil as he strives to pull the economy out of a two-year recession, government sources said on Monday. Temer’s centre-right government plans to send Congress a bill allowing 100 per cent foreign ownership […] Read more


Quebec’s Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis announced funding for L’Arterre at winery Cassis Monna et Filles of St-Pierre-de-l’Ile-d’Orleans, Que., accompanied by (l-r) Catherine et Anne Monna and Land Bank agent Leslie Carbonneau and other dignitaries. (Groupe CNW/MAPAQ)

Quebec service to match farmland sellers, young buyers

The Quebec and federal governments are putting up funds for a different kind of online match site: one to connect aspiring young farmers with producers who are either retiring or wanting to sell or rent farmland. The two governments on Tuesday announced $300,000 for the Centre de reference en agriculture et agroalimentaire du Quebec (CRAAQ) […] Read more

(Scott Bauer photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

China money, market spur Canadian blueberry deluge

Richmond, B.C. | Reuters — An aging mansion sits vacant on an estate outside Vancouver, the garage overtaken by a blueberry sorter and a walk-in cooler packed with the fruit. The owner, an investor from mainland China, leases the estate to Fred Liu at such a bargain the farmer grows blueberries in its fields even […] Read more

A bill allowing state expropriations of South African farmland now goes to President Jacob Zuma, shown here Wednesday at Africa Day celebrations in Cape Town, for his signature. (South African Government GCIS photo via Flickr)

South Africa’s parliament approves land expropriation bill

Johannesburg | Reuters — South Africa’s parliament on Thursday approved a bill allowing state expropriations of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership, an emotive issue two decades after the end of apartheid. Most of South Africa’s land remains in white hands and many commercial and small-scale farmers are currently facing tough times because […] Read more


Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. (Akorda.kz)

Kazakhstan land protests widen in challenge to leader

Almaty | Reuters — Hundreds of people staged street protests in two cities in Kazakhstan on Wednesday over land reform, Kazakh media and local activists reported, a rare act of defiance that could pose a challenge to the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The protests, a continuation of demonstrations that began on Sunday, were sparked […] Read more

Swaledale, a dale (valley) in Yorkshire. (CIA.gov)

England’s farmland prices fall ahead of Brexit vote

London | Reuters –– Farmland prices in England fell by 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year — the largest quarterly decline since 2008, weighed partly by uncertainty ahead of the June 23 referendum on European Union membership, estate agent Knight Frank said. Knight Frank’s Farmland Index fell to 19,538 pounds (C$35,881) […] Read more